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Statistiques
Biographie
Tiersen was born in 1970 in Brest, France and began playing music at an extremely young age. At age four he began piano training and just two years later he picked up the violin. Tiersen progressed quickly with his music and eventually moved to various music academies in Rennes, Nantes, and Boulogne where he received classical training.
While studying abroad Tiersen was captivated by the music and subculture of the punk movement. When he was 13 he departed from classical music and formed a rock band. Tiersen was exposed to many innovative experimental punk musicians during his stay in Rennes. The city was the host of the music festival Recontres Trans Musicales and at this event he saw acts ranging from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Television, Suicide, and Nirvana.
A few years after the dissolution of Tiersen’s band he ventured into a solo career. Armed with a drum machine, a mixing board, synthesizer, and an 8 track tape recorder he started to create minimalist electronic music. Tiersen further developed his sound and went on to compose music for short films and plays, using the electric guitar, violin, and accordion for the bulk of the instrumentation. Some of the recordings he had written for these plays and short films ended up on his debut album “La Valse des monstres”, which was released in 1995 and limited to only 1,000 copies.
Though Tiersen’s sound did not display the raw punk sonics of his influences like the Stooges, he nevertheless adopted many of punk’s ethos, primarily its dadaist perspective of abandoning any restricting conventions and starting anew. This is exactly what Tiersen did. Using what he called “musical anarchy” as a guide, he relied on instinct and incorporated whatever instrument he thought sounded interesting whether it was something as elaborate as a harpsichord or cheeky as a toy piano. In April, 1996 he released his 2nd studio album “Rue des cascades”. Though Tiersen’s first two album’s were criminally overlooked by critics and the general public, they have since gone on to earn great respect. Tracks from both of these albums were included in high profile films, and this publicity helped immensely in opening the public eyes to the talent of Tiersen.
“Rue des cascades” title track whose vocals were handled by Claire Pichet was included in the Palme d’Or nominated film “The Dreamlife of Angels”. Tracks from this album as well as Tiersen’s other first four albums were included on the overwhelmingly popular soundtrack “Amélie”. The album was a critical and commercial hit winning the World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Score of the Year and the Cesar Award for Best Music Written for a Film. It also topped the French Albums chart and placed at No. 2 on the US Billboard Top World Music Albums.
Though Tiersen’s recognition leapt exponentially after the release of the “Amélie” soundtrack, his first taste of fame was with the release of his 3rd album “Le Phare”. The album’s standout single “Monochrome” featured pop sensation Dominique A and it’s incessant radio play shot the album into the French mainstream.
Tiersen’s next feature length album “L’Absente” also featured Dominique A as well as contributions from Hannon and Lisa Germano. This album was also a huge success in France and in support of this album he went on an extensive tour which lasted from 2001 to 2002. The material from his 2002 live album “C'Était Ic” is built from this tour.
Tiersen released his score for the film “Good Bye Lenin!’ before putting out his next official studio album, 2005’s “Les Retrouvailles”. This release featured some of Tiersen’s past collaborators like Dominique A, but also featured legendary French Pop stars like Jane Birkin.
Tiersen scored the soundtrack for the film Tabarly and subsequently released a string of studio albums including 2010’s “Dust Lane”, 2011’s “Syline, and 2014’s “∞ (Infinity)”, the latter which was issued on the label Mute.
Avis
There is little doubt in the fact that Yann Tiersen is extremely talented. I have been more than 15 years following his work, and I saw him live for the first time more than 10 years ago.
However, several things struck my attention during his latest concert in Barcelona at the Palau de la Musica. First of all, do you remember his peculiar piano style? The style that has been strangely likened to Satie? (I would put it closer to Ludovico Einaudi...) Ok, so I hope you like his piano style, because his latest album seem to be the same playing style over and over. During his performance in Barcelona I never got the feeling that I was facing 10 different piano pieces. Instead, they just sounded like 10 different parts of the same piece.
If we talk exclusively about the piano, Yann Tiersen revealed himself as a one trick pony, no matter how good the trick is.
Then, the second part of the concert (when he already had presented his new pieces) was a mix of some previous work. His stubbornness to don´t play any old piece that could link him with the whole chanson/Amelie thing, caused that his repertoire ended up being a bit lackluster. Tabarly. Does anyone really care about Tabarly? Then he also played "La dispute", which was the only nod to whichever material could associate him with Amelie (an idea that he seems to hate).
He also played a piece of La Valse des Monstres, which was interesting, but at the end of the day, I remain thinking that with the huge repertoire for solo playing that he has accumulated from his early career, to pretend to offer a "Yann Tiersen solo" evening and don´t offer the fans some of the pieces that helped him to acquire his current level of popularity, is a bad move.
I think that if he had included maybe Comptine d'un autre ete and maybe just one very single accordion piece, it would have been a much more engaging concert.
Just with his latest piano album, and tiptoeing through the rest of his solo stuff, trying so hard to avoid any "chanson" stuff, and offering a lackluster autopilot "Sur le fil", is not enough. He comes across as a self centered diva who believes people will follow him no matter what.
So guess what? That´s not true. I, for one, think that he is getting more boring and predictable, so I don´t think I will attend more concerts from him.
By the way, special mention to the bastards in the auditorium that spent the second half of the concert coughing loudly. I hope you choke on your coughing pills. Oh wait, you didn´t bring any. Maybe that´s why you didn´t stop coughing for 40 minutes.
rubenwap
I first heard about Yann Tiersen when he produced the track The Best of Times for Sage Francis, my favorite hip-hop artist and musical act in general.
After looking his name up, however, I discovered that he was also responsible for the Amelie soundtrack, as it was mostly made up of songs from his studio albums. So when he came to perform at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex in Los Angeles, California, I decided that I absolutely had to experience this wonderful musician’s beautiful work in person.
The venue is this stylish, spacious place that seats 1,200, and it was the perfect place to witness such an incredible artist at work. He’s an unbelievably talented artist, playing a wide range of instruments from the guitar, the piano, the violin, the accordion, and everything else in between.
Every single one of his tracks is just stunningly beautiful, and he knows just when to strike a chord with your emotions and which buttons to push to make you feel what he wants you to feel. Yann Tiersen is in the middle of a US tour right now, so I’d encourage absolutely everybody to go ahead and check out his music and see him live.
Wow! What a concert! I think I have never seen an artist play so many musical instruments and half of them I had never even seen before. It was such an incredible experience to see Yann Tiersen and his group play. And he was very laid back and was even after the concert out at the yard with the whole crowd talking to his friends. There was not the classics of Amelie so if you re gonna go see him just for that, then dont. But the music was amazing and it was more experimental and rock that I could have imagined. I very much recommend this concert especially for all the Tiersen lovers.
stephanie-erika-papa
It was a dream come true for me to see Yann Tiersen live and meet him backstage before the concert.
we had a quick chat ,I told him how his music brought me absolute pleasure and inspiration into my life ,as a pianist myself ,I interpreted almost Every piano work that he published out there for us.
the concert was phenomenal,no amount of words can describe how grateful I'm for such an awesome artist.
Merci Énormément Yann !
Love & Peace
Mohammed.
muhammad-benelkadi
Hi just went to a concert with no particular expectation but i got very disappointed by the extremely ripetitivity of his live music.
It was so boring that we all decided to leave before the end to save the evening.
I strongly suggest to listen to his last album before buying because that's what he is going to play and I can tell that can be boring beyond expectation.
valerio-ciampoli
The 2015 tour is by far the worst. Yann Tiersen has moved to a mixture of electronic and psychedelic music. If you suspect some classical Yann Tiersen songs, which show some real musical talent, you will be disappointed by this concert. I know no one who wasn't.
ericwolf
Yann Tiersen provided a wonderful performance. Him and his singers; other musicians had very nice stage presence. The music was also beautiful, narutally. I Hope to see him again. I highly recommend anyone to see him.
alialidoolittle
The show is amazing. Just the seat arrangement is not that perfect, for example, my view was completely blocked by the one sitting in front of me. Also the enforce of checking bags with laptop doesn't make sense.
henryzhou
